Sanitary napkins having flaps extending from the right and left sides of the main portion thereof to prevent the lateral leakage of menstrual blood and the like, have been developed as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Kokai (Laid-Open) No. Sho 60-199446. An adhesive is often coated on the back side of the main portion of the sanitary napkin so that the sanitary napkin can be fixed to undergarments. When the sanitary napkin has flaps, the right and left ends of the flaps extend from the undergarment and it is preferable that the flaps are folded backward along the edge of the underwear and the folded portions are fixed to the back side of the underwear edge.
In a sanitary napkin having flaps, adhesive is applied to the back side of the main portion and the flaps thereof and the adhesive is protected by release paper adhered thereto (30, 30' in FIG. 3 ). In use, the release paper is removed prior to positioning the sanitary napkin for use.
In these known sanitary napkins, the procedures of both removing the release paper and disposing of it are needed in addition to disposing of the packaging material. The flap is flexible in order to function properly. When the sanitary napkin is used after the release papers of the main portion and of the flaps have been removed, accidental contact may arise between the adhesive of the flap and that of the main portion, the adhesives of the flaps, or the adhesive of the flap and portion of undergarment and the sanitary napkin may become unusable.
Therefore, a user generally removes only the release paper of the main portion and disposes of the it, adheres the sanitary napkin to the undergarment and then removes the release papers from the flaps and disposes of them. Even in this case, however, when the release paper is completely removed from the flap, the free end of the flap must be held by a hand different from that used to release the release paper to prevent contact of the adhesive portion with any other portion.